Sometime tomorrow DC Art News will go over 40,000 visits since I started this BLOG a year ago.

What a great birthday present for anyone who cares about the visual arts in our region!

I want to thank all of you who read this BLOG everyday! Pass the word, and email me with any and all info to help spread the word about our incredible, incandescent art scene from our art galleries, artists and museums!

J.T. Kirkland is a 26-year-old artist and art critic who writes incredibly eloquent thoughts and feelings and observations about art and art shows at Thinking About Art.

Anyway... J.T. has been soliciting artists to write to him and communicate words about their art, which he then posts into his excellent Thinking About Art BLOG.

Please check Thinking About Art and see some of the artists who have so far responded and (if you are an artist) add to the dialogue.

Art Events for This Week

On Thursday is the opening of the major Ana Mendieta Retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Curated by the Hirshhorn's Deputy Director, Olga Viso, this exhibition is a comprehensive look at the Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta’s career between 1972 and 1985. Mendieta (b. 1948 – d. U.S., 1985) is celebrated for using her own body to explore issues of gender and identity, and her work has significantly influenced subsequent generations of artists. I met her quite by accident in 1975 and am lucky to have one of her early drawings in my collection. The retrospective will be on until January 2, 2005. I will review it later.

And Friday is the 3rd Friday and thus the 3rd Friday and the five Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown have their new shows. Openings are from 6-9 PM and are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant, also located in the Canal Square. We will have the DC debut of Bay Area painter Douglas Malone, Best of Show winner of the 2003 Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition. Many of the artists will be present in the five galleries. We will also have plenty of our famous Sangria. Free and open to the public.

And there are two major art events over the weekend. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Art Baltimore takes place at the Baltimore Convention Center's Exhibit Hall E (Entrance from Pratt Street). Over 150 national, regional and emerging artists from 38 states and Canada will be exhibiting and selling a unique mix of original works of art and gallery quality crafts. See participating artists here.

And Saturday and Sunday is the Bethesda Row Arts Festival in Bethesda. 170 national and area artists and fine crafters will be selling their work on the streets around Bethesda Row. I will be in booth 31E, come and say hi.

If I missed any art events this week, please email me.

DC Art News reader Keith Peoples, in reference to the Goya posting, notes that the National Library of Medicine currently has thirteen prints by Francisco Goya on display.

Two of the works are first editions created by Goya, while the others are "restrikes" printed by others using Goya's original plates.

This exhibition, on display through October 29, 2004, is curated by Belle Waring of the Prints and Photographs Collection of the History of Medicine Division.

The National Library of Medicine is located at 8600 Rockville Pike in Bethesda, MD and is near the Medical Center stop on Metro's Red Line. The Library's hours are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The exhibition is inside the History of Medicine Reading Room. For more information, call: 301 496-6308.

The "Funky Furniture" controversy made it to the "Countdown with Keith Olberman" TV show at MSNBC last night. It was the third highest ranked story of the night!

New Masters' Painting Discovered!

A previously unknown work by the painter usually considered to be the true father of modern art, Don Francisco de Goya y Lucientes has been discovered in Malaga, Spain by a local art restorer.

Read the story here - thanks AJ.

We are lucky to have many Goyas in Washington, DC at the NGA.